Report of Specialist Groups Congress 2001

The Specialist Groups Congress 2001 was held at 11am on Wednesday, 5th
July 2001.

Present:

Jeremy Comley

BCS Marketing Director

Peter Crouch

Fortan SG

Stephen Drewit

BCS SG Accountant

Anna Duckworth

BCS Communications Manager

Roberta Fuke

BCLO Public Relations

Charles Hughes

Vice-President Member Services

Roger Johnson

Advanced Programming SG

John Kavanagh

The Computer Bulletin

Brian Layzell

Developing Countries SG

Chris Lazou

Fortran SG

Alastair Macdonald

President

Geoff McMullen

Deputy President

Carole Pendle

BCLO Public Relations

David Penfold

Electronic Publishing SG

Barbara Porch

BCS SG Liaison Officer

Judith Scott

BCS Chief Executive

Jennifer Stapleton

Vice-President Technical

Colin Thompson

BCS Deputy Chief Executive

John Young

Fortran SG

around 50

representatives of other SGs

5

additional BCS staff members

Summary

Introduction Jennifer Stapleton

The V-P Technical outline the purpose of the Congress, to let the SG
representatives hear the Society's plans for the future and to give an
opportunity for them to comment from the SG point of view. She also reported that
at the previous day's Policy and Resources Committee meeting it had been agreed
that Specialist Groups should retain the same level of representation on Council
under the new arrangements as they have had in the past.

The vision for the BCS Alistair Macdonald

The President outlined the steps the Society had taken since the Pollard Report
was published to find out the views of both members and non-members on the Society.
As a result the new strategy had been developed with an emphasis on the delivery
of services and information via the Web, the formation of three forums to cater
for members in the technical area, education and management and to increase the
visibility of the Society within the IT/IS industry and to the general public.

The BCS Marketing Director described the need for a public relations programme
with two strands, "Making the News" and "Responding to the News". There will be a
corporate PR programme and budget. Any SG or Branch PR activity would have to be
funded from the SG or Branch support budget.

The two ladies from BCLO described the range of services offered by BCLO in
marketing, communications and public relations and their expertise in dealing
with the media. They also described how PR can be used and the techniques used.

For the BCS the aim was to establish the Society and its members as THE experts
in the IS field. This is an area where the expertise of Specialist Groups can be
utilised. They emphasised that when dealing with media enquiries a quick response
was required, even if it was negative. The charges for PR activities are
£600 per day but general PR advice can be funded from the general PR budget.

The past President stated that the SGs were the Society's major provider of:

Best Practice Information

Skills Updates

BCS Events

Professional Networking

They were the Society's biggest shop window:

Involving 5,000 - 10,000 members and 5,000 non-members

Turnover £1M+

100s of events each year

But they all relied on voluntary effort and needed professional support from HQ
in:

Planning

Developing

Marketing

In the new Society structure the SGs would report to the new Member Services
Board via the Specialist Groups Executive Committee. The Member Services Board
in turn would report to Council, as indicated in the following table.

New BCS Structure

BCS Council

Policy & Resources Committee

Member Services Board

Knowledge Services Board

Management Forum

SG Exec. Comm.

Branches Exec. Comm.

Qualifications & Standards Board

Education & Training Forum

Specialist Groups Assembly

Branches Assembly

External Relations Board

Engineering & Technology Forum

The SG Executive Committee would organise at least one SG Assembly a year to
transact AGM business, receive reports from SGs and provide advice and a
discussion forum.

The exact composition of the Executive Committee still has to be decided and how
the V-P Member Services and BCS HQ will maintain effective contact with 100 SGs
and Branches is still an open question.

The key objective is to ensure that SGs flourish and develop within the new BCS
structures to the mutual benefit of SG members and the BCS corporate image.

The new Member Services Board Charles Hughes

The V-P elect Member Services outlined his background. After leaving Manchester
University with a degree in Mathematics he joined ICL, rising to become a
director in 1985, specialising in sales, marketing and business management. In
1995 he was seconded to the DTI for two years and as Project Director he launched
the Government's Information Society Initiative and IT for All programmes. He now
runs his own consultancy specialising in the implications of e-commerce and
government/industry relations.

He stated that the BCS is seriously undervalued and needs to be at the heart of
members business activities. In technical areas SGs represent the Society's
position and should aim to attract non-members to join.

The position of the Member Services Board within the new BCS Structure had been
adequately covered in the preceding presentation.

Lunch

The new Knowledge Services Board David Penfold

David was standing in for Wendy Hall, V-P elect Knowledge Services. The new board
was derived from the old Publications Board but with a wider remit to develop and
dissimilate a wide variety of information on IS.

Up to now the Society has not been a comprehensive source of information. In the
future as much as possible of SG's knowledge should be accessible from the BCS
web site. As some of this will be part of the BCS Digital Library it will not all
necessarily be free. There will be a budget for information creation and a more
proactive role for SGs. Knowledge Services will want to tap into information know
to SGs.

The future organisation Geoff McMullen

The Deputy President said that SGs should ask for the resources and support they
felt they needed. Colin Thompson is the contact point for support issues at
present, the new Director of Forums will take over when they are appointed. The
aim of the reforms is to make the Society less bureaucratic.

He asked the SG representatives what questions did they want addressing and what
level of support did they require from BCS HQ?

Parallel discussion sessions

How SGs will relate to the new forums - chaired by Brian Layzell

The future for SGs in the Society - chaired by Roger Johnson

Feedback from the discussions

In answer to questions the Chief Executive said that she envisaged that each
forum would concentrate on two or three broad issues each year to engage
people in debate. It would be appropriate for the SGs to be involved in the
discussions leading to the choice of topics.

Brian summarised the discussions as follows:

How should the forums should be defined, covering areas such as technical
matters, business, society and learning?

There should be opportunities for cross fertilisation between forums

There should be a mechanism for culling outdated forums

Discover how the forums would relate to the subjects covered by SG and to
the members interests

The forum managements should seek input from SGs

SGs should be able to provide input to one or more forums as appropriate.

Roger summarised the discussions of session 2 as follows:

There should be at least two meetings (assembly/congress) per year for
representatives of all SGs, one being the AGM

Today's meeting had been very valuable because of the presence of senior
Society offices and staff

Discussion lists should be available before assemblies and for SGs on the
Web

The Society should employ/hire a technical writer to report on meeting, etc.